The federal government recovered a record $4.2 billion in the last fiscal year from medical providers and others who fraudulently billed government healthcare programs such as Medicare, the Obama administration announced Monday.

Interagency contracting and the IRS Business Systems Modernization program are no longer considered high risk initiatives by the Government Accountability Office. GAO removed these two programs from its biennial High Risk List released today.

President Obama called for smarter government during his State of the Union address Tuesday night in a speech that focused on creating more jobs and strengthening the economy without adding to the country's deficit.

Late Tuesday, President Obama signed an executive order on cybersecurity that offers industry more carrots than sticks to lay the groundwork for eventually mandating security standards and corresponding privacy protections.

Declaring that the nation is stronger "after years of grueling recession," President Obama advocated an array of modest second-term initiatives Tuesday night that he said wouldn't bust the federal budget.

Federal pay again is dominating the news, as the Obama administration and House Republicans yet again offer contrasting proposals on government salaries. President Obama is proposing a 1 percent pay increase for federal civilian employees in fiscal 2014, which we reported Friday evening.